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10 Cheap Camping Tips

Camping at the Kern River begins this Friday for me and my family. I love our annual camping trip! We love to play board games, at night, with the lantern to light our table. We love to sit around the camp fire and tell good family stories. We love getting our River Rat Inner Tubes and glide down the water. I love the smell of eggs and bacon being cooked over the morning fire. And to sit and drink a fresh cup of coffee in a natural sitting… priceless.

I was browsing for Frugal Camping Tips and came across this great list of (rather innovated) frugal suggestions posted on the Mountain Survival website .

According to the web info:

The original file for these low-cost equipment/ideas/fixes for Scouting and camping in general was originally found on a F-Net Scouting board and was reposted on Fidonet on Nov 11/92 by Steve Simmons. The file evidently originated with BSA Troop 886 in the USA.

This is an BIG list. Here are the most innovative I found:

Canning rings can be use to cook your eggs in for egg sandwiches.

Use a large zip lock plastic bag, filled with air, as a pillow. I use a rolled up towel, but this might work.

Use a cookie tin as a Dutch oven.

A Frisbee will add support to paper plates when the plate is place inside the Frisbee.

Laundry lint makes good tinder.

Water proof matches by dipping them in nail polish.

Keep your toilet roll dry by packing it in a coffee tine with a snap-on lid. *Good recycling tip

Save inner cardboard tubes from kitchen and toilet rolls, stuff with waste paper and use as fire-lighters.

When using a bucket for a messy job, line it with a plastic bag which can be thrown away afterwards.

The little plastic tags from bread and bun packages are great for pinning up wet bathing suits and towels at camp, and they take up a lot less packing space than clothespins.

We are staying 4 days in a tent placed feet from the water (the sound of the water is a great natural sleeping aid!). Gonna be hot during the day but perfect at night.

#10… the little plastic tabs, not the twisty ties. I’ve used them before for this purpose. Can hold light towels, but does great for the suits. Use a thin nylon string tied from the tent to a branch, hook a plastic tab and there is still enough room to hook suit. Of course, you could just throw the suit over the line, but tabbing it allows the whole suit to dry fast all the way thru. Then again, the heat we will be in this weekend… will dry any thorough in a flash! LOL.